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The Call of Duty franchise is one of the biggest in the gaming industry. Throughout the years, Activision’s shooter series has peaked and troughed with player counts varying every year. While the Black Ops 6 cycle began on the front foot with millions mastering Omnimovement and completing the Easter Eggs within Zombies maps, the game’s launch success appears to be failing to result in long-term engagement.
As the first season of Treyarch’s 2024 release comes to an end, the number of issues impacting players has continued much to their annoyance. As the start of Season 2 moves into view, Call of Duty’s player count has continued to drop to levels that were last seen during the Modern Warfare 3 cycle.
The decline of Call of Duty
With the Squid Game collaboration managing to miss the mark with its unnecessary paid event pass, Steam’s player count has dropped a further 7% over the last 30 days according to Steamcharts. During the month of December, the game dropped its player count by 46% despite the gamers having far more free time during the holidays.
Call of Duty’s steep decline in players has continued since Black Ops 6 launched in late 2024. Throughout December and the last 30 days, the player count has dropped a total of 50% making it the largest slump since January 2023 where 2022’s Modern Warfare 2 had hit rock bottom.
The root cause of players deciding against playing Call of Duty is due to the lack of anti-cheat measures. Whether it’s casual or competitive matches, the chances of encountering a player gaining an unfair advantage are significantly higher than intended.
Can Call of Duty recover?
Season 2 has already promised the arrival of better anti-cheat to prevent hackers from ruining the action in both multiplayer and Warzone. While this is positive news and a step in the right direction, it could be too late to recover the dwindling numbers.
Black Ops 6’s player count peaked at 313,313 shortly after launch and has struggled to maintain them. With half of Steam’s numbers gone, is it possible a fresh season armed with new content and less hackers can recover the situation? Only time will tell.
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